Final Project 2009
Introduction:
My project is a comparison of effectiveness of two on spot stain removers; a popular name brand and an alternative cheaper brand. My popular name brand is Tide-To-Go and my alternative cheaper brand is Zout. For my tests, I dried ketchup and soy sauce on pieces of a plain white t-shirt. I then applied either warm water or cold water and either Tide-To-Go or Zout to each of the 24 stains (12 ketchup and 12 soy). I then observed the effectiveness of the stain removal over night.
Justification:
I am interested in this experiment because I have been consistently using Tide-To-Go (my more expensive name brand) and I am curious to know if the name brand is as effective and superior as presumed. Because I am going away to college, away from any parents that would clean any stain I might acquire, I also would like to be prepared to remove the stains by myself.
Hypotheses:
Ho: There is no difference between generic and name brand stain removers.
Ha: There is a difference between generic and name brand stain removers.
Process:
I will cut 24 pieces of white t-shirt, label them, and stain 12 with soy sauce and 12 with ketchup. After letting the stains dry, I will apply the preselected water conditions (warm or cold) and then apply the preselected stain remover. Tide-To-Go is applied with a pen that you press to expel liquid and then proceed to scratch and rub away at the stain while applying pressure on the stain. Zout requires no pressure, but is a liquid that you put in water and let the stain soak. I put the stains in either warm or cold water with the same amount of Zout in each water bowl. When applying the stain remover, I made sure that part of the stain was visible so I could compare the difference. After letting them air-dry, I will observe the stains and the effectiveness of the stain remover on a 5-point scale:
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5No removal / Little removal / Moderate removal / More removal / Complete removal
Below is a table of the labeled t-shirt samples with their selected experiment design. Each scenario has 3 samples creating a total of 24 samples.
Tide-To-Go / Hot / Soy / #1-3Ketchup / #4-6
Cold / Soy / #7-9
Ketchup / #10-12
Zout / Hot / Soy / #13-15
Ketchup / #19-21
Cold / Soy / #16-18
Ketchup / #22-24
Data:
Sample # / Rating / Sample# / Rating#1 / 3 / #13 / 5
#2 / 4 / #14 / 5
#3 / 3 / #15 / 5
#4 / 2 / #16 / 5
#5 / 2 / #17 / 4
#6 / 2 / #18 / 5
#7 / 3 / #19 / 4
#8 / 3 / #20 / 4
#9 / 3 / #21 / 3
#10 / 2 / #22 / 3
#11 / 2 / #23 / 3
#12 / 2 / #24 / 3
2-Sample t-Test
Conclusions:
Tide – Soy – Warm vs. Cold
Warm has a higher average of working on soy sauce stains with Tide-To-Go. Tide-To-Go Warm has an average rating of 3.33 while Cold is 3.
Tide – Ketchup – Warm vs. Cold
Both warm and cold conditions worked equally inefficiently.
Zout – Soy – Warm vs. Cold
Warm has a higher average of working on soy sauce stains with Zout. Zout warm has an average rating of 4.67 while cold is 5.
Zout – Ketchup – Warm vs. Cold
Warm has a higher average of working on ketchup stains with Zout. Zout warm has an average rating of 3.67 while cold is 3.
Warm – Soy – Tide vs. Zout
Zout has a higher average of working on soy sauce stains with warm water. Zout has an average of 5 while Tide-To-Go has an average of 3.33
Cold – Soy – Tide vs. Zout
Zout has a higher average of working on ketchup stains with cold water. Zout has an average of 4.67 while Tide-To-Go has an average of 3.
Warm – Ketchup – Tide vs. Zout
Zout has a higher average of working on ketchup stains with warm water. Zout has an average of 3.67 while Tide-To-Go has an average of 2.
Cold – Ketchup – Tide vs. Zout
Zout has a higher average of working on ketchup stains with cold water. Zout has an average of 3 while Tide-To-Go has an average of 2.
Summary:
In all cases of comparison between the leading brand, Tide-To-Go, and its less expensive competitor, Zout, Zout was more effective. This leads me to reject my null hypothesis and conclude that there is a difference in generic and name brand stain removers. According to my data and conclusions, Zout is more effective than Tide-To-Go. Also, using warm water conditions is more effective 75% of the time (this percentage is due to the Tide-To-Go – Ketchup – Warm vs. Cold). Although it is obvious Zout worked better, it was still not a complete stain remover for ketchup. If someone were to have a ketchup stain on a white shirt, they would be left with a red stain mark, just not as distinct. Ketchup seems to be a tougher stain than soy sauce. I noticed the difficulty of ketchup also because it soaked into the shirt as well as leaving a crusty layer on top. I also noticed that Tide-To-Go took a lot more work to remove much less of a stain. I had to apply pressure and work much longer to remove a little portion of the stain with Tide-To-Go while with Zout I merely let it soak and sit.
I conclude with 99.9% confidence that there is in fact a difference between the Tide-To-Go and Zout stain removers. My data shows that Zout is more effective than Tide-To-Go and that using warm water is more effective than using cold water.
On my honor, I have neither given nor received aid on this work, nor am I aware of any violation of the Code.